PICTURES: Changi eyes year-end launch for T4

25 July, 2017

SOURCE: Flight Dashboard

BY: Firdaus Hashim

Singapore

Singapore's Changi airport plans to put its new Terminal 4 into operation by the end of 2017.

Built at a cost of S$985 million ($723.4 million) over three years, the 225,000sqm terminal will have the capacity to handle up to 16 million passengers annually, says operator Changi Airport Group (CAG) during a media preview on 25 July.

The terminal, which is half the size of Terminal 3, will raise Changi's total handling capacity to 82 million passengers annually.

Of the terminal's seven check-in rows, four are dedicated to automated check-in kiosks and bag drops. The other three rows have conventional check-in counters, but these can be repurposed to house automated kiosks in future.

Changi Airport

Nine airlines will operate out of the terminal when it opens. These are: the four AirAsia carriers, Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, Spring Airlines, as well as SkyTeam members Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines. Together, these airlines will serve an estimated eight million passengers annually.

Of the 21 contact gates at the new terminal, only four are for widebodies.

CAG's vice-president for T4 programme management office Poh Li San explains that the terminal is built on the site of the former Budget Terminal, and that it was unable to build more widebody gates due to space constraints.

She adds that with taxiways and service tunnels between the terminals, inter-terminal transfers will also have to be done through shuttle buses.

Firdaus Hashim/FlightGlobal

When asked if the airport operator is in talks to move other airlines to T4, a CAG spokesman tells FlightGlobal that discussions are ongoing. He also stresses that the new terminal will serve both low-cost and full-service carriers.